1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a method and system for facilitating communication between first and second parties, and particularly to a method and system whereby a party can pass an electronic calling card or token to a second party to facilitate communication between the parties without revealing any contact information, such as, the telephone number of the first party.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is common in social situations that a person will meet another person for the first time and will want to provide the new acquaintance with a method of contacting them. In the prior art, this is usually done by providing the new acquaintance with a telephone number. This procedure has a drawback however, in that once the telephone number is provided to the new acquaintance, the telephone number cannot be retracted. Therefore, if after several conversations, it becomes clear to the party that they do not have any interest in further contact with the new acquaintance, there is no way to prevent the new acquaintance from continuing to call the party""s telephone number even if the party requests the new acquaintance to stop. As a result, the party who passed out the telephone number to the new acquaintance has no way to prevent the new acquaintance from continuing to call, other than by changing the party""s telephone number to avoid future calls.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a system which allows a party to provide a new acquaintance with a method of contacting the party but does not actually provide the party""s telephone number to the new acquaintance.
In one aspect, the present invention seeks to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art described above, by providing an improved method for facilitating communication between first and second parties, wherein one party supplies a token to the other party to facilitate the communication. The token is associated with contact information such as a telephone number, but does not reveal the contact information. This allows a first party to contact a second party without having the telephone number of the second party revealed.
In one embodiment of the present invention, wireless telephones and a server are used to create a token and to have a call placed between the wireless telephones without either of the wireless telephone users knowing the actual telephone number of the other user.
In another embodiment of the present invention, no server is used, and instead the wireless telephones include applications for creating and storing a token, and for using a token to arrange for communication between the wireless telephone users without either of the users knowing the other user""s actual telephone number.
In another embodiment of the present invention, local communication between the wireless telephone handsets is eliminated and the e-calling card or token is passed between users either verbally or in written form.
In still another embodiment of the present invention, landline telephones are used together with a server to create a token and to arrange for communication between the landline telephones.
These together with other features and advantages which will be subsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.